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With the number of people moving to Austin increasing daily - a recent Forbes article noted that our population growth of 2.5% last year was the highest of any area in the United States. In fact, city demographer Ryan Robinson reported last month that 110 people are moving to Austin each day.

Many of these new Austinites will decide to lease - not purchase - their residences upon arrival. Some because they are looking for work and don’t want to commit to a specific area of town, others because their incomes don’t yet align with a home purchase. Whatever the reason, the Austin rental market, like all aspects of the housing market, is very strong in 2014. (For a map of what constitutes north vs south Austin and current price comparisons, see the map below)

At Keep Austin Weird Homes, we consult regularly with Austin residents who want to take advantage of the strong Austin rental market and purchase an investment property. Attached is a map we recently created for a client so she could familiarize herself with the general rental rates in different areas of Austin. The pre-printed markings (NW, 1N, 8E, etc) correspond to the areas in our Austin Board of Realtors’ system.

We pulled the stats for the properties that had leased in the last 90 days in each area and divided the properties into two types, using a different color ink to note each one: in red are houses, and in purple are condos/townhomes, duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes. For each area we noted how many units had leased and what the average rental rate is running.

Based on this information, which covers from 12/20/14 - 3/20/14, you can see that the average rents vary a great deal, typically based on how central an area is to downtown. Two “sweet spots” in the Austin Rental Market we’d like to point out are RRW - or Round Rock West - and 10S - the area between S. Mopac and I35 from William Cannon to Slaughter Lane. Both of these areas have high volume of leasing activity, and strong prices as well, with homes leasing for $1,658 per month in RRW and $1,547 in 10S.

Obviously the data can be sliced and diced many different ways, so let us know if you would like to drill down farther on anything. We also offer complimentary consultations with potential investors to assess whether investing in real estate would be a match for your specific financial goals and situation.

Rodney Campbel is a member of the Austin Board of Realtors and with over 35 years of sales experience He loves crunching numbers and helping people understand how to best take advantage of the statistics and trends in a particular neighborhood to build wealth through real estate. If you’d like a professional real estate consultation, click here to schedule an appointment or call 512-740-6486.